The Dreams of Russian Dolls
by Kagomaru
Summary: Sakura didn't remember how she came to be on the empty dirt road that led into the mountains... Everything before this moment was clouded, she couldn't remember the day of the week or even when she had last slept. Entry for the LJ KakaSaku Horror Challenge


Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto or any of its characters, that right is reserved for Masashi Kishimoto.

First, please forgive any mistakes, I'm down to the last minutes to get this in for the LJ KakaSaku Horror challenge. It's my first attempt at either writing horror or entering one of LJ's contests.

Second, this _**is**_ for a competition, so if you like it vote for it!

And as always: Please **read and review,** reviews are the #1 best motivation in the world! ^_^v

* * *

**The Dreams of Russian Dolls**

Sakura didn't remember how she came to be on the empty dirt road that led into the mountains; but she knew where she was. She'd been there at least a half dozen times on her way to and from missions. It was a long, path that wend its way through the forest and on through the mountains; but she had no idea how she had gotten there _this_ time. The beat of her heart began to speed faster as she realized that she couldn't remember where she had been before this. Everything before this moment was clouded, she couldn't remember the day of the week or even when she had last slept.

She didn't know if she was sleep walking, or if she'd blacked out, or…

Looking down she suddenly realized that her feet were moving forward of their own volition. She didn't feel like anything was causing this compulsion to continue walking, but her feet placed themselves one in front of the other without her conscious permission. It felt vaguely like being trapped in someone else's body, she could see the path before her, hear the sound of the wind whipping through the canyon ahead of her, could taste the slight tang of minerals coming from the canyon walls, smell the sweat dripping down her face, feel the thump of her feet against the ground and her heart in her chest… but she couldn't stop or slow or even change the direction of her progression down the path before her.

Lifting her head, she thought her heart would stop all together. Everything was dead. She had walked this path during every season, in all kinds of weather, but she had never seen it like this before. As far as the eye could see _everything_ was dead. She could no longer even turn her head to look behind her, but before her there were no trees, no animals, no grass, _nothing_.

Her heart beat hard against the confinement of her ribcage until she was half convinced that she was on the verge of collapsing… but her body continued to move forward without so much as missing a step.

She couldn't remember what the sky had looked like when she had first 'awoken,' but with every step she took the sky grew darker and the stars grew brighter. There was no obvious sunset, no moon and the air continued to grow with every passing second. Colder and colder until she thought that her limbs would surely freeze in place. But her body kept moving forward.

She tried to think, tried to calm herself as her shishou had taught her…

Shishou… The word echoed through her mind, connected to memories, and then fading away into nothing. She couldn't remember who that person was, couldn't remember why they were important. The harder she tried to focus her mind and remember, the faster it all slipped away.

The very air felt like fire in her lungs, burning so cold she was choking on her own breath. She couldn't even control her breathing as the panic became more substantial than she could bear. Names and memories were slipping out of her mind like so much water down a drain. With every step she took, she lost a little bit more of what it was that made her who she was; but she couldn't stop.

Hot tears burned down her face like acid.

The pain of the excruciating heat against the unbearable cold of her skin was draining her of even her ability to remember what she had been struggling against forgetting. Words that were empty of meaning floated through her head, but she didn't know who she was anymore. The words meant nothing.

The only thought screaming through her mind she understood was that she was losing everything that mattered. She tried to scream, but her lungs seized as the air burned and crystalized in her lungs. Pain tore through every nerve in her body and the scream she could not voice thundered through her mind and tore everything she didn't even know was left of her like so much tissue paper.

And through it all her unblinking eyes could see nothing but the dirt path before her winding resolutely through the desolate land.

* * *

Sakura awoke screaming.

Her eyes were clenched tightly closed as she sat bolt upright, screams tearing through her head as her hands clenched at her hair and her heart beat at the inside of her chest like a hammer. There was so much pain, so much unbearable pain shooting through her limbs that she wished she could die. The horror of being unable to voice the terrible screams clawing through her brain stopped all other thought. She couldn't remember what she had forgotten…

Suddenly two hands took hold of her shoulders and shook her violently. "Sakura!"

And just like that, it was over.

Silence enveloped her as Sakura opened her eyes. She was panting, and as she looked into Kakashi's charcoal grey eye she suddenly realized that she _had_ been screaming, screaming until her vocal cords bled. Her body shuddered in memory and she couldn't help throwing herself into his arms and sobbing her heart out.

She couldn't speak around the damage to her throat, but a horrid moaning gurgle still tore itself out of her as tears soaked the shoulder of Kakashi's black over shirt.

After a long time, longer than Sakura would care to admit, she was able to stop making the terrible sound that passed for a scream and lie panting against his shoulder. Her fingers still clung to the fabric of his shirt at his chest and elbow, but she couldn't force her fingers to loosen their grip. This was real, _he_ was real.

She wanted to tell him what had happened, was desperate for someone else to share the unbearable burden of what she had experienced. But even as she thought it, she knew that he would never be able to understand the violence of her emotions- she would never be able to find the words to do them justice. After all, how did you make someone else understand the terror of your own personal hell coming to life and swallowing you whole?

After long minutes passed without Kakashi pushing her away or doing anything other than gently holding her, Sakura found the strength to sit upright. She was still within an arm's length of him, but she didn't really want to leave the comfort of his embrace just yet- she just had to put enough space between them for her to heal her horribly damaged vocal cords.

Sakura looked up at him when she had finished. His jaw was clenched and the look in his eye was more intense than she could remember it ever being when he wasn't in a life or death battle. Her heart ached fiercely, even if he couldn't comprehend the extent of her fear, he understood that it hadn't been _just_ a nightmare.

"I'm alright…" She took a deep breath, swallowing against the dryness in her throat and steadying her shaking limbs before looking him in the eye again. "I'm alright." This time her words held more conviction and Kakashi nodded before letting go of her shoulders and standing.

"I don't think we should stay here any longer then." He held his hand out and Sakura took hold of it and allowed him to haul her to her feet. "There's not really any danger left but…"

Sakura looked around her. They were standing on the outskirts of what could have been a war zone for all the damage that had been done. To her right there was a burning pile of rubble that had once been a three story concrete building, and to the left were several craters and at least twenty rouge nin. Twenty dead rouge nin.

And then, with the force of a punch to the gut, Sakura remembered how she had ended up under that genjutsu in the first place.

It had been and S-class mission that had been assigned to just the two of them. Rouge nin that specialized in genjutsu had banded together, taken over one of Orochimaru's old facilities, and had begun taking over everything within ten miles of the place. Their mastery over genjutsu had been to such an extent that Tsunade had feared sending anyone else with them. They had been the only two in the village that were 'natural' genjutsu users. Kakashi of course because of the sharingan, and Sakura because (despite focusing most of her energies on learning healing jutsu) she was a natural genjutsu user- and had proven to be all but immune to anything less than the sharingan.

The leader though, had developed the strongest genjutsu Sakura had ever encountered. She could _still_ feel the shadow of it hanging about her like a cloak about her shoulders… and for some reason her arm _ached._

And then Sakura smiled as she remembered something else. "Thirteen."

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Really Sakura?" She just continued to smile up at him. "I don't suppose I get extra points for killing the one that almost took you down do I?"

Sakura scowled. "I killed thirteen of them before he got anywhere near me Kakashi. Even if I counted him as five to add to your seven I _still _would have..."

"Eight." Kakashi interrupted her.

Sakura rolled her eyes this time. "Fine _eight._ Even then we would only be tied."

Kakashi's eyes twinkled. "We'll call it a tie then? Good, I _really_ didn't feel like doing your laundry for the rest of the month. Thanks Sakura!"

Jaw dropping in incredulity Sakura watched as Kakashi strolled away from her in the direction of the road home. "Excuse me?! I didn't say that, I said even _if_ I counted him as five- he's still just one man Kakashi. I _won_ fair and square."

Kakashi looked back at her over his shoulder. "Tell you what; I'll race you to the next village. The winner gets this prize _and_ the night's bar tab on the loser."

"Kakashi…" Before she had a chance to argue the point Kakashi had disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Clenching her teeth in frustration and narrowing her eyes in the direction he had disappeared to, Sakura took off in the direction of the nearest village at top speed.

Later, she would wonder how she had had the strength to run at all (let alone at top speed), but in that moment she was too focused on beating Kakashi's tab bailing ass to the village.

* * *

Sakura beat him by a beat of her pounding heart.

Looking up at him Sakura couldn't help but laugh, he was slumped forward and sulking piteously. Sakura didn't feel bad for him though, for as many times as he'd left her with the tab- he deserved it.

"Mah Sakura-chan, you're not really going to let an old pervert like me wash your panties are you?" His words were said with a completely straight face and as soon as he finished speaking them Sakura punched him in the upper arm.

"You'll wash everything _but_, there's not a chance I'm going to let you weasel your way out of this." Kakashi's shoulders slumped further and Sakura laughed again. "Go get us a table at the bar and I'll get us checked in."

Nodding dejectedly Kakashi entered the inn and headed towards the bar to the right as Sakura went up to the reception desk. She got them a room with twin beds and then bypassed the bar to enter the ladies room. It was when she was washing her hands that she heard Kakashi calling her name.

_Sakura…_

"Can't you wait two minutes?" Sakura called back to him over her shoulder, turning to look back at him as she dried her hands. He wasn't there. "Kakashi?" She called a little louder this time; she would have sworn that he had been right behind her.

Throwing away the paper towel Sakura headed out the door, she was only a little surprised to find that he wasn't waiting outside the door. He wasn't the type to care that it was the _women's_ bathroom, there'd been numerous occasions in the past where he had come in without even knocking because he felt she was taking too long. She shook it off and headed for the far corner of the room where Kakashi was sitting in a small booth by himself.

"What, you couldn't wait?"

Kakashi gestured with the hand not holding a beer to the plum wine sitting on her side of the table. "I thought you'd be happy not to have to wait."

"That's not what I meant."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow and it suddenly occurred to Sakura that maybe he _hadn't_ called her name after all.

"Never mind." Sakura shook her head to clear the odd moment from her thoughts. 'Maybe I heard someone in the bar calling to another Sakura?'

Sakura seated herself across from him and smiled as she took a sniff of her wine. "Mm, you got the good stuff!" She looked up at him a little surprised and Kakashi smiled his usual crinkle-eyed smile.

"Of course, I couldn't let my favorite kunoichi get plastered on the cheap stuff could I?"

Sakura laughed merrily.

* * *

Hours later smoky emerald eyes stared blurrily back at Sakura from the bathroom mirror of their hotel room. They didn't look right…

After coming back from the bathroom she and Kakashi had sat down for a strait three hours of drinking and carousing, and now she was _drunk_. Or, as Kakashi put it, _plastered_. After three beers and a bottle of sake Kakashi had finally declared that he was going to bed and if Sakura wanted any of her drinks paid for, then she better leave the bar too. She had complained at first, but when she went to stand up and found that her knees were jelly beneath her she had laughed and demanded to be carried.

Kakashi had laughed even as he knelt for her to climb on his back.

When they reached the room and had closed the door behind them Sakura had pulled her knees from his grasp and slid down his back to the floor; just to fall on her ass the moment her legs tried to hold her weight. They both laughed again and Kakashi had knelt to help her up as she had begun to stand and their heads banged into each other with painful force, knocking both of them back to the floor.

"Ouch." Sakura rubbed her head and leaned forward as she tried again to get her legs beneath her. But as she leaned forward Kakashi looked up, and suddenly they were a breath away from each other. The air fairly sizzled.

They had been dancing around this strange, powerful attraction they had for almost a year; and suddenly Sakura couldn't remember _why_. Both of them were of age, mentally sound, healthy adults; what possible reason could they have for not enjoying each other? And just like that, they were kissing.

She didn't remember when he had pulled down his mask and pulled her down to the floor to hover above her as he made love to her with his mouth. Frankly, she didn't care. His hands were everywhere, gripping her with the perfect amount of firmness and caressing her in all her favorite places. And just when she started to get a cramp in her back from the hard surface she was laying on, Kakashi picked her up and carried her princess style to the four poster bed that took up the majority of the room.

Sakura didn't know when they had removed their clothes, but suddenly they were gone and Kakashi was pushing her back into the mattress. He didn't waste his time with further foreplay and Sakura was grateful, she was burning for him already; had been for the last year. They kissed and clung to each other, writhing together as they each sought their blissful completion. And when it came, it came with a burst of stars across her vision.

After a moment of panting Kakashi lay down beside her, wrapped an arm around her and fell asleep promptly.

Sakura hadn't been able to sleep. Despite the glorious sated feeling tingling through her every limb, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

She slid out from under Kakashi's arm, slightly surprised that he didn't awaken at her movement. 'Did he have more to drink than I thought?'

Slipping off the bed Sakura padded softly over to the bathroom to take a quick shower, but as soon as she stepped into the bathroom she was caught off guard by her reflection. Something was wrong…

She stepped forward until the sink stopped her forward progression and reached her hand out to touch the cool surface of the mirror. It was her eyes, they were the wrong color.

Sakura shook her head, blinked her eyes and looked into the mirror again. Emerald green, her eyes had never been that color before had they? Her eyes were usually far paler, more of a mint than a true green- let alone the mysterious emerald that was currently staring back at her.

Sakura's heart began to beat more rapidly and her breaths came faster; and she suddenly remembered that she shouldn't have had the strength to beat Kakashi back to the inn earlier. He shouldn't have either for that matter… And where had that _bed_ come from? She distinctly remembered ordering a room with twin beds. 'Could Kakashi have…'

But no, Kakashi hadn't left her side since she had entered the bar earlier; and she hadn't been in the bathroom long enough for him to change their room, order their drinks, and be waiting at the table for her by the time she got out… Sakura shook herself again and looked back into the mirror, her eyes were darker now.

Even as she watched her eyes were growing darker and darker, drawing her attention and seeming to pull her in closer until all she could see was her eyes as they deepened from emerald to black. And then the blackness seemed to spread out until there was nothing else left.

* * *

She'd been here before. Sakura didn't remember falling asleep, didn't know how she had come to be where she was, but she'd been here at least a half dozen times before. The long path went its way through the forest and up through the mountains, its dirt packed hard from frequent use. But it was deserted now.

Looking down she suddenly realized that her feet were moving forward. She didn't remember when she had started walking, but her feet placed themselves one in front of the other without her having to consciously think about it. The wind whipped through the canyon ahead of her and she could taste the slight tang of minerals from the veins of metal that marbled the canyon walls. She could smell the sweat dripping down her face, and the solid thump of her feet against the ground pleased her for reasons she couldn't name.

She was walking quickly, but didn't feel the need to stop or slow her progression down the path before her. During every season she had walked this path, in all kinds of weather, but she had never seen it like this before. The trees were bare of leaves, the grass was dried and brittle, there was no annoying birds calling or crickets chirping, and with every step the sky grew darker and the stars grew brighter.

There was no moon, but the brilliance of the stars was magnificent. At first she had been overly warm, but with the dimming of the sky so too had the temperature dropped. It dropped quickly, seemingly with every step she took, but she was inordinately pleased by the feeling of the sweat cooling where it had dripped down her back. Her lungs began to burn, as if she were a dragon getting ready to breathe fire to turn all before her to ash. She was inordinately pleased by this thought as well, and when her limbs began to throb painfully she imagined that _she_ was the one being burned, and for some reason that pleased her too…

* * *

"Kai! …Damn it Sakura, snap out of it! Kai!" Kakashi was kneeling over Sakura's limp form, shaking her violently as he begged her not to die.

After killing the last of his opponents Kakashi had turned just in time to see the man Sakura had been fighting stab her in the arm with a syringe, and Sakura falling limply to the ground. In an instant Kakashi had quick stepped behind the man and thrust a kunai through the weak point at the base of the skull. He shoved the body to the side and knelt immediately over Sakura. He pulled the syringe out of her arm, wincing when he saw that it was empty.

With methodical care Kakashi looked over Sakura's still form. There were some minor bruises and cuts, but nothing that caused him to worry- besides whatever the dead man had injected her with. Just when he had finished examining her, Sakura's breathing stopped.

Kakashi's heart stopped for a moment as he watched her chest rise and fall as she struggled to draw a breath, and failed. Without a thought he ripped the mask from his face, tilted her chin, pinched her nose and breathed air into her burning lungs. He couldn't tell if it helped or not, but as he sat up to take another deep breath he noticed her eyes moving rapidly beneath their lids as if she were deeply asleep or…

'Or under a genjutsu!'

With slightly trembling hands Kakashi made the necessary symbol with his fingers and concentrated his chakra. "Kai!"

Nothing.

Kakashi stared at Sakura for a moment with wide eyes for a moment and then made the symbol with one hand and touched her with the other and tried again. "Kai!"

This time Sakura's eyes fluttered open for a moment as her body finally gasped in air greedily, but her eyes failed to focus and even as her breathing evened out they closed again. Kakashi had never seen anything like it, even a person under the influence a sharingan could be rescued from it when someone else touched them while performing the release, but that hadn't worked… or at least it didn't work _enough_.

"Sakura…" Thinking hard Kakashi decided that her best chance was probably to get her to the nearest med-nin. Konoha was at least a day away but Ame…

Kakashi pulled out one of his sealing scrolls and released a length of rope suitable for his needs and proceeded to tie Sakura to his back. It wasn't easy, but he managed it in less than ten minutes; and then he was up and running, popping a soldier pill as he went.

For hours Kakashi concentrated on only two things; his surroundings so he could be sure to get to Ame as quickly as possible, and Sakura's breathing. There were a couple of times when her breathing and heart rate sped up, but nothing so worrying as before.

Until she stopped breathing.

It wasn't like the last time, her chest wasn't heaving as it at lease_ tried_ to take in oxygen. In a flash Kakashi cut the rope away and set Sakura on the ground as gently as he could manage. Her body was limp and growing colder with every beat of her slowing heart.

"No…" Kakashi stared down at the woman he loved but had never confessed to, she was dying…

Kakashi touched her with one hand while his other made the necessary symbol once again. "Kai!" … Nothing "…Damn it Sakura, snap out of it! Kai!" Again, nothing.

"Sakura, you can't do this to me! Don't you dare fucking die on me now Haruno, don't you _dare_." Kakashi ripped his mask down once more and kissed her forehead as he desperately tried to think of what he could do. "Okay… okay…"

Taking a deep breath Kakashi rested his forehead against hers for a moment. He breathed in and out slowly, forcing his pulse to calm before pushing up his hitai-ate, prying Sakura's eyes open, and staring into their rapidly moving depths with the sharingan.

It was like waking from a dream and finding a nightmare.

He was standing in the Gosemi Pass, except that it was desolate and dead. He turned his head and saw Sakura walking away from him. "Sakura!" She didn't stop.

Kakashi ran in front of her and grabbed her shoulders. She was staring forward blankly with a smile on her lips as she continued to push forward, pushing Kakashi back though slowing. Frightened, as he hadn't been in years, Kakashi shook her. "Sakura, snap out of it!"

She stopped.

Kakashi almost wept when she looked up at him and her smile brightened. Her lips mouthed his name but no sound came out and he realized that she wasn't breathing in real life because she wasn't breathing _here_. This time when he spoke his voice was calm, commanding. "Sakura, breathe."

She tilted her head slightly, as if wondering why he would ask her to do something so unnecessary. He shook her sharply and raised his voice just a notch. "Sakura, _breathe_."

Once again she looked at him like he was being silly but then, seemingly to placate him, she took a breath. And then her eyes went wide in sudden panic as she gasped frantically, as if she had just surfaced after spending too much time under water. Her hands reached out and gripped his arms as she sagged against him, struggling to control her breathing. Kakashi pulled her into him and crushed her against his chest; after only a moment her arms came around him and pulled him just as tightly against her.

It was long minutes before they were able to push back from each other, and when they did Kakashi pulled her forward again. Only this time, he crashed their lips together and kissed her with all the fear and passion inside of him and her response was immediate. It took almost twice as long to pull back this time, but when they did they were grinning.

Sakura took a deep, steadying breath. "Hey."

Kakashi smiled his usual crinkle-eyed grin, now made all the more appealing with the lower half of his face uncovered. "Hey."

Tilting her head to the side slightly Sakura said what she had wanted to say since she had 'awoken' on the battlefield- in the genjutsu. "Let's go home."

Kakashi's smile softened and he nodded before taking one of her hands in his and using his other hand to form the release symbol. "Kai!"

This time when they opened their eyes they were right where they were supposed to be.

* * *

What do you guys think? Was it even a little scary? Worth a vote?

^_^v


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